The world's first f-word found in print - in a 16th century moral guide book written by a MONK

A new book that traces the origins of expletives claims that the first written use of f-word in English was by a monk who was cursing his religious leader.

Melissa Mohr documents in her book Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing that the profanity first appeared in 1528.

It was said to have been written by an unnamed monk who was venting his frustration at
his abott in England while reading his monastery's copy of De Officiis, an essay by
Marcus Tullius Cicero that was broken up into three books and considering
the 'moral authority' of the middle ages.

The monk wrote in pencil in the margin of the book: 'O d f---in abott.'

The origins of the f-word are constantly being disputed, however claims in a new book say the first time it was likely written in English was by a monk, who was scrawling in the margin on his monastery's moral code

The f-word was found written in a copy of De Officiis, a three-part book series that defined behavior and morality in the middle ages, dated 1528

Mohr says the context is ambiguous and the word could have been meant literally or metaphorically.

However she suggests the monk was using it as an 'intensifier' to convey dismay at the religious leader.

'If (so) it anticipates the first recorded use by more than three hundred years,' Mohr writes in the book, according to science website io9.

'Either is possible, really - John Burton, the abbot in question, was a man of questionable monastic morals.'

Mohr notes that, in an interesting perspective from the scribbling, the 'd' in the scrawling likely stands for 'damned', meaning damnation was a curse a lot more powerful and forbidden than the f-word.

Authority: Melissa Mohr explores the origins of expletives in her new book, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing

There are at least two other documentations of the word f--- before this particular manuscript.

Mohr says, however, that both of these are usually discredited by historians.

The first was said to be seen in 1500 in a satirical poem about friars.